Hello boys and girls.
God this was hell to get finished on time, but worthwhile for the end result. Two weeks is fine when it's just a touch up but not when you wanna rewrite the plot. But I'm sticking to it, that's just the sort of person I am.
This is I think what we've all been waiting for one way or the other. No doubt it's been a long time coming. Aside from the long winded conversation throughout much of the first half this is my new favourite chapter. I found it good to finally get to this part, I'd been wanting to focus on it for a long time. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it, thank you.
Together At Last.
Mid morning.
By the time the four had reached the ice cream shop they were already halfway through telling Junior about what they had been through. They had still to mention Max was the one responsible however, that was going to require a more gentle approach. Along the way they also noticed the hostility directed towards their friend had grown much worse since they had been away, people stopping in the streets to stare at them all the way along. He kept his head down and weathered it all, not as easily as he had previously though. When they reached the ice cream shop however he stopped in his tracks. Grim, Billy and Mandy turned back to him as he stood on the footpath outside.
"Junior?" Billy asked unsurely.
"I… I can't go in here anymore." He spoke with a sombre note. Billy set himself seriously.
"What's bothering you?" Junior shook his head.
"Something happened here, a week after you guys left." Junior began. "When I showed up here the owner wouldn't let me in, and started with the usual hate speech. When I asked him why he started screaming that it was my fault he beat his kids and killed his dog, that his ice cream went off, that he cheated on his wife, foreigners, all kinds of crap, and at the end of it he started to loose the ability to talk. When I asked him if we could just sit down and talk about it, he… he went insane."
Mandy stepped in. "What do you mean insane? What did he do?" Junior stared at the ground at the memory.
"He started screaming, and thrashing, and attacked everything. He stabbed the woman behind the counter to death and…" His eyes widened in horror. "… ate her. He tore her throat out and ate it, in front of everyone. When he saw his own reflection he stabbed himself to death, just to kill the person in the reflection. When I looked at everyone else I saw they were agreeing with what he was doing, and after he killed himself they started screaming at me saying that I killed him."
The three looked at him shocked and horrified. The idea that someone could corrupt themselves so completely as to become like that was not something they had ever even considered before. Not only that, but how could people agree with something like that? And how could they reasonably equate the man killing himself to be Junior's fault?
"I haven't been up to the surface since, until you guys came back. Pity, I sort of liked this place." Billy and Mandy looked between each other at the pain hidden in his smooth voice, Billy turning to Grim.
"Can Berserker create illusions to disguise a person from other people?" Grim nodded. Calling on his new blade he felt it materialise in his hand, and immediately the four noticed a profound change in its personality. It felt warm and benevolent to be around, even if its jagged form hadn't changed. Turning the blade in Junior's direction Billy scoured his mind for an image to fool the townspeople. Only one came to mind. A flash of blue streaked from the blade and surrounded Junior before disappearing a moment later.
Looking at himself Junior saw he was the same, something Billy, Mandy and Grim shared.
"Did it work?"
"See for yourself." Grim stated and ushered him into the view of the patrons inside. Stepping forward hesitantly in front of the windows he looked inside. The few patrons occasionally glanced in his direction, but never reacted to his presence. "It only works for de oders, not de people who cast it."
Continuing Junior stepped up to the door and entered, pausing in the doorway. Again no one reacted to his presence. The others moved up behind him.
"How are you feeling?" Mandy asked, drawing on her own experiences for understanding.
"Alive. That's all that I ask for." He responded, leading them down to a booth near the window, Grim going to the counter to hypnotise the attendant. Sitting down at the far end Junior faced the two sitting together opposite and sighed quietly. "Max has disappeared."
He watched as the two shared a stern look.
"When?" Mandy spoke.
"The same time I was last here." He explained. "I was with Piff and him on the way here, on the Friday a week after you guys left. We encountered Sperg and a few of his gang. Max demanded money off him, and he actually payed up. Apparently he had been taking money off Sperg every week for some time. He said it was in return for not disciplining him, then said that he didn't have to pay him anymore. When Piff started asking why he was so obsessed with finding you three, he went blank and rattled off something about caring about you."
He noticed Billy and Mandy each listening intently to every detail, but with a more guarded front than he had expected them to. He could also spot Grim listening in from a distance. The idea occurred to him in the back of his head that they were keeping something from him.
"A blue muscle car splashed us and drove off. After that we continued on to the ice cream place. When the owner started going off at us I told Piff to go home, but I forgot about Max. When I was finished there I looked around and he was gone. I never saw him again."
The two sitting opposite remained silent for a moment, moving over as Grim sat down next to Mandy holding a single chocolate ice cream. Distracted momentarily they looked at him questioningly.
"Only one ice cream? Where's ours?" She asked seeing him hand it over to Billy.
"It looks a little sus, I don't tink deir fridge is working so good. I didn't think Billy would mind though." Grim commented dryly as Billy sniffed his half-melted treat suspiciously and lowered it, leaving them to return to the subject at hand.
"Junior, that car that splashed you, was it a dark blue eighties Camaro?" Mandy asked him. This caught him off guard. Frowning he raised his head towards them.
"How do you know about that?" As soon as the words had exited his mouth a deep dread began to manifest itself inside of him at what they may have to say in return.
The three went quiet again, lowering their faces sombrely. Looking across to her partner Mandy put the responsibility on Billy's shoulders, knowing he was closer to the youth as his cousin. He took a deep breath and settled himself, all the while Junior's fear grew progressively worse.
"Billy?"
"I'm sorry that I have to tell you this Junior, but you need to know the truth." Billy responded gravely. "Max wasn't the person we thought he was. He manipulated and deceived us right from the beginning. He was the one who was trying to kill us."
Junior's breath caught in his throat as his eyes widened. He tried to draw a gasp but nothing happened. The first thing that came to him was panic. He couldn't face what he was saying. Max was one of the handful of decent people who had ever called him a friend. The thought of all of what they had been through, the personal bond he had with him being all a lie was immensely painful. He shook his head and lowered his face.
"No." He spoke softly. "I… I can't accept that. Max was my friend. He would never use and betray any of us like that." Billy sighed sadly and sat back in his seat facing the boy sympathetically.
"Max was sent here to protect and help Mandy, but he betrayed her. He tried to manipulate us by gaining our trust and friendship in the hope he could get close to her and then do away with us once he had no more use for her. When his plan went wrong he attacked us. He was the one who killed Mandy's parents."
"No way. Not Max!" Junior shook his head as he braced himself against the edge of the table, pushing back into his seat with his arms. He held his eyes shut as he tried to shake away the terrifying notion Billy was putting upon his shoulders. He simply could not believe, could absolutely not accept that their friend, his close companion, was a cold blooded, pitiless killer. He couldn't accept that the kind, quietly optimistic kid he had the pleasure of knowing was the one who had killed Mandy's family, Irwin and his family, and a great many others. "Absolutely not. Max wasn't someone who could do that. I'd know if he was, and he wasn't. Someone like that just can't do those things. It can't be. It just can't…"
Billy, Mandy and Grim each waited in silence for him to finish. It actually came as a fair awakening to them to see Junior, the boy who they had known for keeping a cool, calm and cultured manner throughout every hardship, suddenly become so emotionally overwhelmed. They each knew what he was going through, Max had been close to all of them. He'd been their friend for so long that to Mandy he had become almost as close as Billy. Together they each had to fight tooth and nail, shoulder to shoulder not just for peace and their own interests, but for survival, against innumerable underworld hordes and the dangers of their own slowly decaying world. After fighting beside someone like that, having saved their life and them save yours, you couldn't help but become deeply connected to that person.
And yet Mandy had seen things Junior hadn't. She had seen him staring coldly at her from under the moonlight before the Doolin house, and stare down on her in that same cold, objective manner back at the laboratory. They had experienced first hand just what cruelty he was capable of, and had themselves seen and heard what was really under that human visage. They had even felt it, the bitter cold of his gaze and underlying nature, and the brutal iron grip of his hand.
"Junior, I know how good a friend Max was to you." She told the boy as he stared at his lap, eyes held wide in shock and disbelief. "He was our friend just as much as he was yours. But if you had just seen the way he looked at us, if you could have felt what we felt when he hunted us down, then you would understand that he was never our friend in the first place."
Junior shuddered as he again closed his eyes and shook the lingering sense of doubt from his head. Though Max had been a good friend of his, who he could, and indeed had, entrusted his life to on hundreds of occasions, there had always been a very faint sense that this friend he saw before him wasn't all that he appeared to be. He sometimes felt that there was something about his smile that was just not quite right, some inexplicable detail that made him question every so often at its validity. Whereas when Billy smiled one could sense that he was genuinely happy, or crazy, due to the way he seemed to radiate it from his being, Max held no such sense of joy. Despite the fact that he could see he was happy to see him, it was as if he didn't really feel any joy at his presence at all. On the last day he had been with him he had come to realise he didn't know Max any more than on the surface.
But there were more ominous signs that he had come to notice, in the days shortly before he had mysteriously disappeared. His sudden change following the attack had been obvious to everyone, how he had suddenly become far more distant as he single-mindedly searched for any information available on the three. But even that was eclipsed by what he'd seen of him on that Friday just hours before he disappeared. That one time he had coldly thrown his classmate out of his seat to take his computer, assaulting him when he'd protested, had been so out of his usual character that he'd not known how to react to it. At the time it had felt as though he was losing the last friend he had left.
Before he would just put the issue aside as him analysing too much and take him for what his actions had proven him to be; a loyal and trustworthy friend, the type that didn't come along too often. Now though, as Mandy told stories of atrocities committed by him in cold blood, those thoughts began to cut away at the image of the perfect companion he held of him. Could it be that he'd never been the good friend he thought he was?
"It… It can't be. I can't accept that. Not Max…" He held his fingertips to his forehead as he struggled to keep his head together against the two conflicting notions. Part of him continued to push out what they were saying to hold onto the clear facts that Max was not a murderer, that he was a friend of his who he could always depend upon when times got tough. But the other part of him knew that as much as he didn't want to have that part of his heart and soul torn out, Billy and Mandy weren't lying. In the end though as much as he denied it, he knew he was denying it, and so it slowly came undone.
Junior still had a fairly limited circle of friends, and those who he did count as being part of that group were very special people to him, like family. With Billy, the fact that they were legally cousins wouldn't have mattered, as had they been somehow unrelated he would have still looked upon the rambunctious redhead as such. This was in a way how he saw Mandy, as a cousin who he wasn't in any way related to. Max had been even more to him. Whereas Mandy could be cold and distant, and Billy could be impulsive and savage, Max was practically the epitome of friendliness. He had become his brother, and he knew that Max thought of him the same way.
And now here he sat, facing the realisation that he had never been a brother at all, and that all along he had only been using him to gain trust and influence. If what Mandy was telling him were true, which he consistently told himself wasn't, then all along Max had seen him as a threat in the long run, and would have probably planned to kill him in the end with Mandy. Killed, by his own brother, who he loved as his brother.
He continued to hold his head as tears began to well up in his eyes and ran down his face, making his vision blur. He bought his head up, wiping away the tears on his hand as he sat back in an outwardly relaxed posture, attempting to regain a calm and controlled manner about himself, despite his wet, reddening eyes.
Billy moved across the table to put his hand on Junior's shoulder in a comforting gesture. Junior looked at it distantly, trying on some level to warn Billy away and prevent any more crushing news. Billy though just smiled softly and sadly, letting him know he felt what he was going through.
"Junior, I know how close Max was to you. He was like a brother to me too. And I know that it's hard to face what we're telling you. But I just want you to remember, you've still got us. We won't lie to you and then stab you in the back. You can count on us Junior, just like we count on you. And if you need to regain your trust we'll work it out at your own pace." He spoke reassuringly, seeing the boy's pained gaze begin to soften as his words took effect.
He looked solemnly back to Billy who still held his hand to his shoulder reassuringly. Despite all their faults Billy and Mandy had always been there for him, longer than Max had. Now as they gave him their support he could finally open his mind up to what he ultimately knew to be true.
"He did kill those people, didn't he? He killed Irwin and his family, and Mandy's mom and dad. Everything we ever went through together was… just a lie. He was gonna kill me in the end." He said in a flat tone as he accepted the sad truth. Billy nodded glumly as he let him come to terms with the painful facts. It wasn't everyday that one comes to find that someone you considered family never cared about you at all, and was already planning to kill you the day you stoped being useful. Junior heaved a deep sigh, balancing his head on his hands again. "Okay."
Mandy stayed silent, letting him get over it before she continue on. After a few moments Junior returned his head to its upright position as he sat back in the seat, wiping his teary green eyes under his glasses as he returned to the matter of what kind of hell his friends had been through.
"Alright, so what did you do?"
"We rammed him off the road into a river and shot him when he came up." Mandy replied unenthusiastically. It wasn't quite the same telling it again to someone who had been close to the person responsible. "Before he died he sort of gave in to the power inside him, and it corrupted him. He came back to life and started changing into a monster. He defeated Grim and Billy and almost killed me, but we managed to fight back with a combined attack at the last minute. He took my scythe right when I was about to kill him, and was about to turn it on us when the ghost of my future self came out of it and caused him to burn to nothing from inside."
Junior looked at her slightly dumbstruck, turning to look at Billy and Grim, as if finding it difficult to comprehend what they had said so plainly. They all looked back without a sign as to indicate any sort of joke.
"You cut a lot out of that explanation didn't you?" He said.
"Yeah, we kinda did. But then last night it took us five hours to explain it all, so I think there's a good enough reason to not go into every little detail." Billy answered absent-mindedly and sank his teeth into his ice cream for the first time.
Instantly his eyes went wide and his face twisted into one of horror as he pulled his teeth out of the slush.
"MADNEEESSS! IT'S MELTING ON THE OUTSIDE BUT IT'S SO COLD ON THE INSIDE!"
Neither of the group reacted with any particular surprise as Billy grasped the sides of his head and threw himself skull first through the widow out into the street in a shower of crystal shards. One thing they had all long since come to understand was that Billy was always going to be Billy, and that part of Billy was the random impulsive idiot. Though this was no longer the only side of him, having been largely superseded by the brutal urban terrorist, and the affectionate best friend, it was still one side.
"He's never gonna change is he?" Junior said as Billy continued to run around madly outside, knocking people over in the streets.
"Oh I don't know. He's developed some decent intelligence over de past few years, and he's shown that he can be calm and controlled at de flick of a switch. I tink Billy's gonna continue growing into these new features over de next few months." Grim said as he watched him run across several lanes of traffic, causing a crash between two cars and a light truck. "It'll be good to seewhere he's gonna take dis crazy aggressive thing he's started showing."
Watching he thought back to his displays of malice earlier from when he had spoken to the general when they had left the fortress, and when he had been presented with his scythe for the first time. Until recently they had been wholly unaware that underneath all the layers of stupidity, intelligence, merry silliness and calm focus, there had been a darkness that wished to see the arrogant narcissists and sycophants of the world cower and burn.
Almost as if on cue Billy ceased his idiotic screaming and straightened himself up, making his way back calmly through the carnage, pushing open the door to the ice cream shop. He brushed away several pieces of glass stuck in his face as he sat down beside Junior, almost as if nothing had happened. He sighed happily and resumed eating his ice cream, though taking care to lick, not bite.
"That was nice how I made those two Mercedes' veer off into that dog food truck don't you think?" He spoke in between gulps of chocolate, remembering how the arrogant faces of the drivers morphed into horror as he darted out in front of them, swerving to avoid damaging their cars. Outside hundreds of stray rabid dogs bounded over towards the overturned truck, eager for the tasty freebies spilled all over the road. The two yuppies emerged from their no longer prestigious cars, their thousand dollar suits covered in ground up horse meat and organs. Each of the group watched as they ran screaming down the street as an army of dogs chased after them ravenously. Mandy, Junior and Grim held a blank stare while Billy smiled in sadistic contentment as the two became overrun by a biting, barking pile. From the door of the truck turned on its side the sweaty driver emerged, saw what was happening and ran.
The screams of the two pompous idiots now fading away as the dogs did their savage rabid work. By the time they were finished and fled the scene the two rich men were left almost naked, sporting dozens of scratches and bite marks, twitching and shaking in shock. The group lost interest when they saw they hadn't been reduced to skeletons and returned to face each other a few seconds later. The people out in the street barely gave the two much more than a glance, more concerned with the minefield the dogs had left behind in the feeding frenzy.
Billy narrowed his eyes on one man who walked by with his nose in the clouds. He smiled in satisfaction as said man stepped in one of the mines, shuddering in disgust as he hopped up and down and surveyed the mess on the bottom of his expensive shoe. As he hopped around he overbalanced, falling expensive suit first into several more steaming piles.
'I love my life.' Billy thought to himself blissfully as the man then ran about screaming, falling in the pile of dog food nearby, after which another pack of dogs began to chase him down the street.
Junior regarded Billy's blissful smile with restrained curiosity before shrugging his shoulders as Billy abandoned his ice cream out the window. As this was happening neither of them payed any particular attention to the police car that pulled into a parking space nearby. Had they turned to watch they would have noticed that the two very corrupt officers look into the store and recognise two of them as they sat at their booth.
"So what's been happening in the town? How's school been going since we've been away?" Mandy asked. "Has it gone downhill?"
Junior shook his head in contempt. "I'm not really sure. In the week after you left it started to really get out of control, but I haven't been there since the last Friday. I don't know what it's like now."
Billy, Mandy and Grim's eyes became attentive. "What happened while you were there?" Billy asked.
"The teachers just sat around drinking or doing nothing all day. There are no real classes, except for party doctrine. A few new teachers have started using the classes to instil the whole white supremacist policy. The students have started using drugs in the hallways." He grimaced in disgust, himself scarcely able to comprehend just how far south the school had gone. "Even before Max left Sperg's started to take power. Last thing I knew he was starting to rule the place like a gang lord. And Mindy's now the least popular girl in school thanks again to our so-called friend Max, Trixie, and a photo of her covered in bugs."
Billy and Mandy shared a look of concern at what they were going to do with their time there, before the red headed boy smirked, remembering taking the picture.
"They were talking about merging the high school into it, so if we do go back we might be sharing the place with a thousand teenagers." Junior continued. "From what I hear the high school's just as bad."
"What do the few honest souls there do if it's gotten so bad?" Mandy asked.
"Well on the last day I was there they were going to the city library to study there. I don't know if it's still open but it would be a good place to check up on."
Mandy thought quietly and nodded. 'If the school really has gotten that bad then maybe Billy and I could use that time to prepare for our takeover. Tomorrow we might use the time to maybe find someone to replace Mandark. It would be a perfect cover; that we're both supposedly studying at the library while we're out making our moves.' Mandy's facial muscles stilled and her eyes narrowed slightly as she realised the opportunity. Billy also nodded in understanding, following her thoughts.
"Do you think the school would notice if we were gone?" She asked.
"I doubt it." Junior stated. "I doubt many of the teachers have noticed you're gone now."
Mandy remembered back to before they had left. She, Billy, Junior and Max had on occasion left class for hours on end together, and no one had noticed a thing. And if what Junior was saying about what it was like now was true, then she needn't even bother showing up to be counted as there.
"I guess we'll find out on Monday. It'll be interesting to see at least."
The group remained quiet for a few moments. Mandy thought back to how Max had acted around school, always polite but with no hesitation towards beating someone to within an inch of their life, as had been demonstrated on Sperg.
"Hey Junior, did you notice if Max started to act strange after we left?" She asked out of wonder. Junior's eyes widened before he shuddered, the eerie memories of telltale signs chilling him to the bone. And he had noticed them, each and every one of them, right up to his disappearance.
"Yes. After we found out about your parents he started asking questions. He continuously asked me if I had heard anything, and then he started asking everyone else, even if they had told him no before. After a few days he began to start becoming more and more cold and distant. On the last day he actually started to loose that friendly attitude he always showed." He went quiet as he thought back to that one particular afternoon, where Max had practically been bilging them for any information at all. It had been the last time he'd ever seen him.
"On the last afternoon when we were walking here he was trying one last time asking about you, in case anyone had heard anything. When Piff asked why he was so worked up over you guys he went blank, then said that you were his friends and that he was worried about you. He said he wanted to find you before anything bad happened to you. After that the car came past and splashed us all with water, though he dodged it. While we were all angry and shouting at the driver Max just sort of watched the car drive off like there was no one home."
Junior sighed as he sank back in his seat. "The car was driven by a woman named Vicky. Max disappeared immediately after that some time between then and when we arrived. We never saw him again. The next day I found out the police had discovered the body of a woman dumped in the middle of the road. They say she was killed some time late at night at a set of traffic lights. Her neck was broken, but there was a mysterious wound where she had been struck, similar to the ones they found on Irwin and his family. Her car had been stolen from the scene. He paused as they followed where this was going. "I never connected the two until you mentioned a dark blue Camaro."
They each sat in silence. "Well I guess we know who the killer was now don't we." She said, Junior recovering from the sobering realisation to continue thinking over and coming to terms with everything they had been through.
"So… what's it like to fire a gun?"
A few minutes later.
"Listen, it's been great catching up with you guys again, but I should get going." Junior said rising from the seat. "I wanna see what's changed since I went underground."
"You sure? I mean this place was hell before, what makes you wanna see it now?" Billy asked as they watched him stand from their seats. Junior shrugged.
"Eh, it's a bit like a socio-economic destruction derby." He returned dryly, earning a smirk from Mandy.
"Sounds like a plan." She spoke.
"Alright I'll see you guys later." He called as he walked away out the door. Each of the group watched him pass down the other way they had come.
The tree remaining sat in silence for a moment as Billy fished a few pieces of glass out of his hair and sat back contentedly in his seat, Mandy reaching over to remove one shard he missed. Outside the midday sun was still high in the blue sky, and even if it was tinged grey with rampant pollution it was still good weather for this side of the country. Inattentively she thought back to Junior.
"How long will that illusion around him last for?"
"It'll stop when he wants it to stop. When he returns home to his parents the illusion will dispel instantly." Grim explained. Another thought came to her.
"Say, what did you base his disguise on anyway?" She turned to Billy sitting opposite. He lowered his face slightly.
"I could only think of one person." Billy relented, Mandy scowled in knowing.
"Max."
"Hopefully he won't find out." He answered dejectedly, leaving them to sit quietly.
"Wanna head back now?" He asked.
"Yeah, let's go." Mandy said as she and Grim rose from their seats, Billy following after them.
The intrepid trio made their way away from the table by the broken window, passing the rows of other dreary patrons as they headed for the exit. As they walked the two police officers watching from the parking lot opened the doors to their car and stepped out into the sunlight, shielding their eyes already covered with sunglasses as they too made their way quickly for the door.
As Billy and Mandy stepped through the glass door with Grim behind them, they found themselves confronted by the two quietly smug looking police as they stood directly before them. Billy raised an eyebrow at the two who just gazed back unmoving in a display of superiority. It was common knowledge that two thirds of the police force was woefully corrupt, while the remaining third were simply killers and rapists off the streets given a uniform and a pay check. The two narrowed their gaze from one to the other before looking up to Grim behind them.
Mandy scowled sternly at them as Billy and Grim looked between them suspiciously, seeing they weren't going to go away voluntarily.
"Can we help you officers?" She almost snarled at the two in defiance of their attempts to intimidate them. Undeterred the one on the left spoke up.
"I take it you're the Grim Reaper?"
"Yeah why?" Grim replied wondering where this was going.
"So I take it you two are Billy and Mandy?" The pig on the left asked with a hard face that belied his satisfaction in being able to stand over the kids. The two nodded, never ceasing to look at them in suspicious and hateful disgust respectively.
"Yes, I'm Billy, and this is my friend Mandy. What do you want?" He asked careful to not provoke the situation. He could slaughter them both easily if he wanted, but that would mean tearing apart the life they had just begun rebuilding.
The uniformed thug on the right spoke up next. "The same Billy and Mandy who caused property damage at the Endsville Mall, terrorised a dozen people, blew up a gas station and stole a minivan?"
Billy and Mandy both lost their hostile gazes as they looked at them wide eyed with tension.
"Uuuuuuuhhhhhhh…" They both stammered and looked across at each other nervously as their hearts started to race. Grim remained relatively calm and objective, after all he wasn't a mortal so what he did didn't matter, but the situation was different for the kids.
"Hey listen, you know we aren't to blame for dat mess, we were defending ourselves from attack." He tried to explain. The cop on the right turned his shaded gaze up towards Grim, took out his nightstick and flexed his spare hand around its well used surface.
"Look we really don't care about details. We have no interest in… supernatural creatures like you. You're not covered by our jurisdiction." Grim frowned, suspecting they were only omitting him because they feared they wouldn't be able to keep him under their control. No bully ever attacked someone on par with or stronger than themselves. He became more concerned when the police then lowered their gaze to the kids and crossed their arms haughtily.
"You two on the other hand…" He continued, a sneer breaking out on their features as the two looked back on edge, both trying to keep a level head despite the growing anxiety.
"Mandy."
"Yeah?"
"Are we screwed?"
Each of the police withdrew a pair of handcuffs from their belts and grinned cruelly.
"Yeah we're screwed."
Half an hour later.
The police Crown Victoria pulled into the front parking lot of the Endsville Police Department building. Gazing out the side window from the back the two saw the headquarters revealed a strange duality inherent in much of the city. Both the car, the building and even the parking lot showed both multiple traumatic experiences, many of which hadn't been repaired or replaced due to the shortage of funds that often goes with massive corruption, while at the same time displaying a degree of wasteful excess not keeping with the dilapidated state of the rest of the dreary complex. For example the two had noticed that while the inside of the cruiser was unclean and strewn with bits of rubbish, and the exterior unwashed and dented in places, it was riding on ridiculously large chrome rims. There was a police Corvette sitting nearby, the personal car of the commissioner.
Stepping out from the front seats the two oafish police stepped back and opened the rear doors, letting the two kids in the back step out. Billy and Mandy held no sign of depression as they swung their legs out, only the anger and inconvenience of having their arms locked behind their backs and being roughly manhandled by the two sorry excuses for cops. Mandy glowered furiously up at the one holding her by the arm as they brutishly led them up the grey concrete steps, while Billy looked back and forth between them tensely. The underlying fear of what this could lead to for their new lives never left their minds. The police pulled them forcefully despite neither resisting as they made their way through the steel barred front doors.
The inside was made of old plasterboard which was stained and rotting in places. To the left of the doors there was a blue reception desk with a small office space behind. There in the reception area they quickly noticed Grim sitting idly off to the side, turning and standing up to greet them as they were hauled past.
"Don't worry you two, I'm here to explain everyting! I'll get you guys outta here soon." He called as Mandy received a brutal shove in the small of her back.
"You better be quick, these gorillas don't think about consequences!" She called back angrily. "And you know how prison changes a person!"
Grim had stayed with the two as they were arrested and loaded forcefully into the back of the patrol car. Upon them being driven off he ported his way directly to the front of the station where they were to arrive. After speaking with the receptionist, a thin lazy guy who didn't take much pride in his uniform with his feet up on the desk, he was informed that he would be able to make a statement a little while later. He already knew that they were all going to be here for a lot longer than necessary. He had even been forbidden from calling their parents. 'No wonder Endsville is going ta hell in a handbag full of cash bribes. Dose two and their parents aren't gonna be happy.'
Billy and Mandy were hauled through the doors to the office behind the reception, a dull network of cubicles and a half dozen people lounging around computer monitors. The atmosphere was one of mental and social decay, with all the ideals that the force was initially created around long gone. They were the section of the force that weren't thugs and bloated slobs, the ones who took care of the books and paperwork.
"Look Mandy, these people work in cubicles." Billy stated, observing one man as he typed away at his computer, a near catatonic expression on his face. "This is the part of the police that's not about standing over and brutalising everyone else. They all died inside a long time ago."
A thought occurred to him. "Hey one things bothering me, why the hell are you interested in us anyway? I mean your job isn't about upholding the law, why should what happened back at the mall worry you?" He winced slightly as the hand on his arm tightened.
"Cause you piss us off ya little shits! You don't respect our authority!" He spat giving the youth a shake as Mandy watched on anxiously. "Plus that gas station paid us every week, which we're not gonna get now cause of you!"
Dragging them on past the wretched existence these so-called human beings lived and worked in they were led down a flight of metal stairs into the underground level. The walls were a pail cream painted concrete, and showed that even here the despair and inhumanity was eating away the entire place from within, with paint flaking off in huge patches and a network of cracks and chips across every wall. As they were marched through they saw more police, one with two prostitutes in his arms, turning to look in their direction with smirks of glee as they gazed back unflinchingly despite their nerves. It had never occurred to them that their rebellious activity would make them so well known here.
They were pushed through this decaying labyrinth towards the walled in holding cells, which were ironically the most well maintained rooms of the entire establishment due simply because most of their prisoners were better men than their captors. Ahead of them was a single steel door with a frosted glass window at the top.
Opening the steel door the two gorillas unlocked the handcuffs and released the kids, before shoving them forcefully into the empty cell. Billy gasped and fell to the floor, turning upwards in time to catch Mandy as she too fell on top of him. Recovering she looked at him from her position directly over him, his hands still held at her waist as the door was closed and locked on them, the walls and door preventing anybody from seeing in or out. Mandy felt her face going warm as she felt the boy's hands on her sides, opening her mouth to take a sharp gasp of air. In her momentary panic almost didn't notice in her flustered state that Billy's face had gone red too, lowering his face shyly as he held her with her hands planted beside his shoulders.
Rolling off him slowly she allowed her companion to sit up, each taking a moment to still themselves. Moving his gaze from Mandy onto the cell they found themselves in they saw that it held the same painted white cinder block walls, with only one window in the metal door, also white. The paint reflected the glow of the overhead fluorescent light, making for a nearly blinding assault to the eyes wherever they looked. Twisting his shoulders around he saw that directly behind them was a concrete bench for use as an uncomfortable bed. All in all, other than the bright paint, the frosted glass window and the conventional door it was pretty much the same as the one they had found themselves in less than a week ago.
Billy sighed with boredom and frustration. "How do we constantly get into these situations? I'm pretty sure normal people our age aren't supposed to get arrested and hauled off to prison." He muttered as he rose to his feet from the cold floor.
Mandy stretched her legs out in front of her, earning a satisfying pull in her knees and ankles before she too got to her feet. "Billy, I'm pretty sure that if you think back you'll find this isn't really out of the ordinary for us."
Billy stopped for a moment, recalling that this wasn't the first time he had been in prison. "Oh. Oh well. We've gone through far worse before haven't we?" He smiled at his friend, but soon let it slip when he noticed that she wasn't quite her usual dark and controlling self.
The concept of just how much worse they had gone through bought up one particularly harsh memory for Mandy. Whereas Billy had noticed the similarity to the cell from the nightmarish future with ease, this was the first Mandy had thought of it. Now that she saw the exact same dimensions of the cell with the exception of only minor differences, she became acutely reminded of one of the more traumatic moments of her life. She found her breathing grow heavy as her heart began to race, the instinctual fear of what might come through that door making her almost dizzy with anxiety.
"Mandy?" He asked growing concerned as he led her gently back towards the bench where they sat together against the left wall. Mandy continued to breathe heavily as he put a hand on her shoulder. She bit her lip, trying to force herself to calm down, biting back the fear that made her want to run and get out. Turning she faced him worriedly.
"Billy, you remember how close the one we were in not long ago is to this place can't you?" She asked, her commanding voice wavering in anxiety. Billy nodded.
"Yeah I do." He spoke still concerned for his friend as she lowered her gaze slightly, trying to block out the otherworldly dread she had found herself immersed in again.
"Well… you remember what happened next, don't you?"
Billy's eyes widened as he realised what was making her near sick with fear as Mandy looked up at him again, showing how afraid she was at facing the torture again. It had only been a few days since her hands had been stabbed through, and by rights they should still be in bandages. Billy wrapped his arms around her as she moved into his embrace, wanting to be shielded from whatever might come through that door to hurt her again.
"Hey, you don't have to worry about a thing." He spoke in a soft and reassuring voice as she continued to press the side of her face into his arms. "Everything's gonna be alright. I know they wouldn't do anything to hurt you here. And even if they tried, I wouldn't let them. I promise, I'm not gonna let anyone hurt you again. I'll protect you with my life Mandy. Everything will be just fine once Grim explains it all to them."
Mandy's heart rate slowed to a steady beat and her breathing relaxed as she calmed down, taking comfort in his words, and most of all in his presence, being held close by him like she had following her ordeal. Pulling her legs up off the floor she tucked them in behind her as she reclined forward into his embrace, Billy lying back against the corner as she pressed her head back against his shoulder. She closed her eyes and let her worries fade away. Watching her doze Billy smiled lovingly, relaxing back in the feel of her warmth as he continued to hold her.
"Do you think Grim's explaining everything to them now?" He asked.
"I doubt it. He's probably still stuck in the reception area waiting for someone who's probably forgotten all about us." Mandy droned with all her charming cynicism. "Either that or he's being batted back and forth from one officer to another… Yeah, that'll be it."
"Well why don't we just break out of here?" Billy suggested. "We can use our scythes in this one. We could break down these walls easily and waste anyone who tries to stop us. It'll be fun."
"Yes it would, but what would we do once we've broken out?" Mandy answered. "We'd have a third of the countries police looking for us, so they can either lock us up for the rest of our lives or kill us, and that goes for mom and dad too." She paused, the thought of calling Billy's parents hers as well still new to her. "We'd have to go on the run somewhere remote again, outside the country. And I don't think either of us wants to hide out in Siberia until we're ready to take over."
Billy smirked. "Siberia? You've really planned all this out haven't you?"
"I'm the boss, it's what I do." She answered flatly, earning a greater smile from the one holding her. "Once I found out Max didn't have any weaknesses I planned that we could hide out in some place like Mexico or Guatemala, maybe even as far south as Peru, until we were strong enough to defeat him head to head. Looks like we don't have to now. I guess if worse comes to worst we could break out and head south, or somewhere more remote, but I don't want to have to leave behind everything we have here."
She spoke with a deep set love for what she had been given, her new family and the chance to start again. Billy noticed this as she pushed up and turned herself over so as to recline with her back to him, his arms still wrapped around her. Billy felt his face grow slightly warm as Mandy smiled softly.
"It ain't so bad is it, taking a break from being all hard and tough and dark." He said, stroking the hair away from her pretty face and her deep onyx eyes.
"I have to admit, if I thought it was gonna be like this I would have done it a lot earlier." She commented from within his embrace. "It's good being able to feel safe, and to be protected by someone you…" They both stopped for just a moment.
"… trust."
Tensely she pushed herself deeper into his embrace, getting as comfortable as she could as they prepared for the long wait, all the while neither of them spoke or reacted to what had just occurred between them.
Billy though couldn't tear his mid off her emphasis on 'trust'. As they lay together on the cold concrete bench in their bleached white cell, he couldn't help but wonder about everything he felt for her, about how much he loved her, and wanted to hold her just like he was now. Just as much he knew she wanted to be held like this as well. Though he was almost too anxious to think about it, in the deeper parts of his mind he already knew what she really meant by trust.
'Does trust really mean love?'
Two and a half hours later.
Grim sighed in immense frustration, leaning his skull into his hand as he waited for yet another officer to speak to, then promptly fawn him off again.
He had been taken into the interrogation room not long after Billy and Mandy had passed, and since then perhaps one hundredth of his time in there had been spent actually explaining anything. He had barely been able to say a word to anyone as one by one every fifteen or so minutes another incompetent officer, detective, chief or otherwise uniformed criminal was bought in to listen to his statement. One by one they had all passed him off to another simply because they had been either too busy doing almost nothing important even by their standards, or just to screw with him.
In the beginning he had also asked for lawyers before he said anything, and surprisingly they had allowed it. After three different lawyers came and went, the first hanging up the phone the instant she heard Grim's name, the second coming in and leaving after seeing him, the third leaving after seeing the charges, he had agreed to just forget about a lawyer and tell them whatever they wanted to know alone.
He raised his gaze to the door again as yet another obese man walked in. He looked to be somewhat reluctant to do anything more than put his feet up on his desk and go to sleep, and was actually being pushed in the door by another officer not too dissimilar. The one being pushed in was probably one of the laziest of the group of incompetents working there.
"But why do I have to… Can't you do it?" He whined pitifully.
"No fatass, you do it!" The other shoved him in, closing the door behind him. He made his way to the chair with a mixture of grizzles and groans. He paused in thought.
"I wonder if Bob could do this. I'll go get B-"
"Listen you fat sack o' crap, let's just get dis over and done with quickly so you can go back to extorting people or whatever it is you do." Grim said irritably, trying to rationalise with the lazy slob. "Besides to get dis Bob guy you'd have to go and walk to him, and tell him, and den drag him forcefully all de way-"
"Oh alright, fuck!" He grunted, pulling out the metal chair at the other side of the table, where upon he sat himself down. Leaning forward he depressed one of the buttons on the recorder in the middle of the table and began to speak the date and time, the name of the two individuals accused and the name of the speaker, meaning Grim.
"Numerous charges." He wheezed tiredly.
As he waffled on, obviously as inconvenienced as Grim albeit for much lesser reasons, Grim wondered when he was going to be able to call Billy and Mandy's parents. Gladys would probably be furious, at him if not the police, if he ever got out of this room.
'I wonder if Billy and Mandy are as bored as…'
A thought struck him. He knew that the two held a great deal of yet unspoken affection for each other. Now that every one of the barriers had been removed and they were locked away together…
'I wonder if dey'll finally open up to each other? I guess time will tell, and we've got plenty of it.'
"Now sir, will you please begin on your long and pointless speech." The officer said placing his feet up on the desk as he took on a very bored look like he was about to fall asleep.
Grim sighed, rubbing his skull with his hand again. "Alright. It's all because of this guy called Max." He delved into his story as to why everything happened and how it wasn't their fault, knowing that from the moment he started he was more or less talking to a brick wall. All the while he kept wondering about the two kids locked away together, a slight smirk crossing his features.
Billy opened his eyes to find that still, after what was very slowly becoming an eternity, no one had come to release them. He hadn't really been asleep, not with what was on his mind. Neither was the girl resting her head back against his chest as they waited out their imprisonment. She kept her eyes closed out of little more than boredom, content to just pass the hours by staying in Billy's arms.
The idea of actually being so physically and emotionally close to someone, to surrender herself so completely to another's care and affection, was something that before she would never have even considered. Before she would have mercilessly crushed the concept as reliance on another person for support…
'… and thus a weakness.' She frowned slightly for a moment, careful to not follow those old habits. She recognised the school of thought easily. 'To break away from the reliance on human companionship and go it alone is the only way to acquire the necessary strength of mind and character to rule.'
The memory of her actions to that end came back to her and made her insides tighten, and soon she remembered why such thinking was inherently flawed. 'But in my irrational fear of weakness and failure I forgot that love is a human need, like oxygen. I do have weaknesses, all living creatures do, and if I try and deny them out of fear then I destroy myself, and the people I care about.'
She remembered how long she had wanted to be held in this boys embrace. She had been aware that she had a connection to him following their fight against Boogie, and though she had buried them under her drive for power, she had eventually become so drawn to him that it tortured her night and day knowing that she would have to leave him. Even now she could feel the heartache of all those times she had struggled to keep going despite the pain of what she had planned for him. It was so much like what Max had done, his plans to betray those close to him without any regard to their own rights.
And now here she lay, nestled ever so comfortably in Billy's arms. Once more she felt the sense of warmth and happiness wash over her, making the world seem absolutely perfect, no matter that they were locked away in a cell in the heart of a corrupt police department. She leaned her head over to nuzzle into his shoulder as he tightened his hold around her a little.
Meanwhile Billy was occupied with the fervour of a debate within himself over how the girl nestled into his embrace thought, of how she felt about him now. He knew with certainty what she felt was displayed obviously in her actions and choices, but just what did the writing on the wall say? Mandy had specifically stated that while she would be fully integrated into the family she was not under any circumstances to be his adoptive sister. He toyed with the possible concept that had occurred to him shortly after hearing it.
'I suppose it would be awkward to be in love with someone, and then have them officially become family, even if you weren't related. What other reason could there be for it?' The youth remained silent as he concentrated on any other possible reason more credible. Try as he might though after thinking on it on and off since yesterday he was yet to find any other reason at all. And more importantly than that, she had been all too happy to snuggle up to him at every possible opportunity. He still remembered how they'd watched Blade Runner together, and that was days before she had ever heard about her imperfect future and all the faults in her thinking came out. It was obvious that she found happiness in having his arms wrapped around her as much as he did in holding her close.
Finally there was the true meaning of 'trust' as she had spoken of it, something that pressed itself on him harder with every minute.
Billy continued to devote every corner of his mind to figuring it out. Though the writing on the wall was more or less clear to him, he could not risk mistaking her friendship for love, and accidentally driving her away. When he'd told her how he'd felt before he'd had nothing to loose, but now, with the absolute love and light of his life with him again, he had so very much to loose if it went wrong. What would happen if he voiced his feelings to her now? Would it really be so bad if she wasn't looking for what he was? But then how could she not feel the same after all they had been through together, and how close it had bought them.
More than anything it was just the sheer nerves of taking that one step over the edge from which there would be no going back. Why here, in a jail cell in the belly of the most depraved cesspool on the planet of all places? Suddenly he wanted to take her and go, to be somewhere safe and peaceful with her, so he could tell her everything.
As he thought it through over and over he felt Mandy move herself so as to prop her head up a slightly higher on his shoulder to be closer to his face. Without giving much thought to it he moved his hands further across her waist, earning a soft smile and a sigh of contentment from the girl. It was then that he came to realise with complete certainty that he had been right about everything.
He smiled softly down at her. Bringing his hand in he stroked the blonde hair of her fringe out and down the sides of her face, letting him see her eyes currently closed in a blissful state of serenity and peace.
"Mandy." He called to her in a soft tone.
Mandy opened her eyes, turning to look up to where his face gazed down upon her. Gone was the hard and cold tyrant of a girl who people respected and feared. Now those deep black orbs held a longing that he himself could feel. She could see in his wide blue eyes that he was seeking confirmation, desperate to know that she felt the same way as he did, the same innocent desire to simply stay close and never let go, to spend the rest of their time together in each others warmth, yet nothing came out of his mouth.
"Yeah?" She asked softly in reply. As she continued to gaze up at him, his wide eyed features formed a heart warming smile as he relented.
"Nothing."
Watching him Mandy saw as his eyes yielded and he remained silent. He may not feel able to speak what was on his mind, but she was. They were alone together at last, just as she had wanted them to be when the time came to tell him. If only the world around them could be one of peace instead of this cold and inhumane place they were trapped in now. But this was the right time, she was as sure of that as she would ever be.
"Billy…" She began timidly as he gazed into her. Suddenly she noticed his eyes dart upwards as if distracted by a thought. "There's something I have to tell-"
She stopped as he raised his fingers for her to be still. Returning his gaze to her she saw a new feeling of life and excitement in his eyes.
"Hold that thought for just a second." He spoke with hushed life.
Moving where he lay he retracted his arms from around her body and began to push himself upright in his seat. Regarding him baffled Mandy moved off him, sitting up and watching him intently as he swung his legs out to touch the floor. He stood up. Reaching down he began to untie his shoelaces one after the other, before stepping out of his shoes and socks. Standing barefoot he set them aside together, turning around back towards her with a growing smile.
"Take off your shoes."
Looking up at him questioningly she followed, hesitantly reaching down and untying her boots, Billy watching her as one by one she withdrew her feet and looked up to him again. Smiling reassuringly he held out his hand for her.
"Take my hand."
Pushing upwards against the nervous tension Mandy stood and took a step towards him, reaching out and linking her right hand with his. Moving around Billy led her so they stood parallel to the bench in the centre of the room, reaching out to her with his other hand which she took hold of. Mandy felt her heart starting to race as they stood facing each other with their hands linked, opening her mouth to take deeper breaths. She found it hard to meet his gaze with her own as here yes flicked down away from him tensely and up again, but the sight of his caring visage reassured her. Billy remained still as she placed her trust in him, looking up to him wide eyed and almost scared, but calm in his presence.
"Close your eyes."
She did so, shutting her eyes and lowering her face, taking calm through her breathing as it slowed again. Billy smiled with happiness as he saw her features turn to peace, and momentarily he wanted to kiss her then and there, but not yet, not until he had done this last thing.
"Relax."
His features stilled to neutral as he turned his minds eye towards the place he sought, drawing on the images and memory's that he held so very dear to him, remembering every sensation, every sight and sound, and every smell, except taste. That was still to come. Taking one last look at his partner's face he opened himself to the mystic force inside him, his eyes turning vivid green the fleeting moment before he closed them. Concentrating on the place he remembered, and the presence of the one he cared for more than any other, he willed it out, drawing it around them in a perfect field, and then let it go to do what he'd asked of it.
With her eyes closed Mandy reached out into the darkness with her other senses. She could hear only their collective breathing, and unless she was imagining it the buzz of the fluorescent light, but then a sudden rush of nervous energy came across her body through her hands and skin, filtering in throughout her body. She took a soft gasp of air at the sudden sensation, before she adjusted, the feeling fading away quickly. As it passed she felt on her exposed arms and legs, and the inside of her mouth, the air had become cool, and a sweet condensation that washed over her, touching her under her dress. She could smell trees, and found the air was suddenly dense with the scent of woodlands. Beneath her feat she felt the flat concrete turn to a surface of many smooth cool rocks. And as time passed and the electric haze in her nerves dispersed, she heard to her left toe sound of rippling water.
"Mandy." She heard him speak, sensing the joy within his soft voice. "Look where we are."
Taking a deep breath of the air Mandy opened her eyes, seeing his welcome and happy face, and behind him blue sky and trees. Stunned she turned to look across to their left and gasped. There in front of her was their river. Billy had bought them to their spot by the side of the river where they had come every day they were in hiding. Gazing awe struck and silent she watched the crystal water shine and sparkle as it flowed across in front of them. Beyond the other bank there was the tree line, a mass of pine trees that turned the horizon a lush green, with the green and white peaks of nearby mountains rising above. And below her feet around them she saw the pristine white pebbles as smooth as pearls that stretched like a road down the length of the stream, disappearing into the water's depth and ending at the tree line on their right.
Turning back to him she looked at him in silence wide eyed, her mouth shut for lack of anything that could describe what she felt now, that her heart was ready to brake apart for him. Billy smiled lovingly as her lip shook and her eyes filled with tears.
Mandy surrendered herself to what her emotions wanted. Opening her hands she let her fingers slip out of his hold. Billy paused with bewilderment as she stepped back away from him to stand facing him where he could see her entire length. There she took a deep calming breath in, set her mind and her features and took hold of the bottom hem of her dress, letting him watch as she lifted it up over her shoulders and off her, dropping it to the bank to her right. Billy gasped in and out and shook as she gazed back at him, lowering her black shorts down her legs to set them beside her as well, revealing her body to him.
Standing in her white bra and underwear before him again this time she did not feign strength, bringing her arms across to shield herself, crossing her left over her breasts and the right down over her waist. She lowered her face as a deep blush crept over her as his eyes trailed down across her figure, before he returned to her face again and smiled heartfelt. Standing her ground through courage and trust in her partner she watched as now he took hold of his blue and white shirt by the shoulders and pulled it up and off him, followed by his jeans as he unbuckled and pulled them off, tossing them all aside, leaving him in his boxer briefs. She saw the lean build of his otherwise modest figure, watching as his shoulders rose and fell rapidly as he breathed nervously. But in his face she saw the same trust and devotion she held for him, and lowered her arms to face him openly.
Settling himself Billy stepped towards her, Mandy following as he reached out to her r with his left hand. She met his hand in her right, both turning towards the river while keeping their eyes on each other. Together they began to walk out into the water, feeling its cool tingle nip at their feet and ankles, gradually moving up their calves as they stepped in deeper. Neither Billy or Mandy ever moving their gaze off the other as they walked out until they were up to their thighs.
There Mandy watched her partner as Billy stepped around behind her, letting his hand slide out of hers to gently place his palms down on her shoulders. He stopped to breathe, Mandy holding hers. Moving his left he caressed her shoulder back and forth up to her neck, while he traced his right down her arm. Mandy breathed shallowly in and out as his fingers moved down over her elbow, running across her hand and her fingers. She closed her eyes and smiled in bliss as for a moment their hands connected again, before he continued up the inside.
Billy watched her as his hand stopped, moving across to the side of her body. Instantly Mandy's eyes flicked open on edge at his touch, and her breath came in gasps as he moved his hand across her with all the care and tenderness he had ever felt for her. He held her shoulder gently as she shut her eyes and melted back into his arms, a soft cry of delight escaping her as he caressed the front of her waist, moving down across her navel, causing her to gasp.
With her eyes shut she reached up and around, wrapping her arms around the back of Billy's neck and shoulders and pulling herself in closer to him as he continued to touch her body. Arching her neck she rolled her head back against him, allowing him to bury his lips into her soft blonde hair. She didn't see him smile as his heart opened for her, or the tears that welled in his eyes. This was the happiest moment of his life.
Continuing he traced circles lightly across her body, moving across to the other side, crossing areas where she was sensitive. Mandy sighed in and out as she leaned her lead across to her right, unsure of how much more she could take of his beautiful torment. An almost desperate smile opened up across her face as she struggled to hang on to some kind of control, which she knew she had already relinquished to his hands. Moving his lips out of her platinum hair Billy bought his gaze down to the side of her neck as he let go of her shoulder, moving his other hand down her left arm to link passionately with her hand. He gazed upon her vulnerable porcelain skin with longing, his mind gone with his adoration for her. Bringing his open mouth closer he breathed gently on her exposed flesh, causing Mandy to tighten her hold around the back of his shoulders and writhe in pleasure. She was at her limit, she couldn't take any more of his gently probing touch, or she was going to loose what control she had left.
And then he moved in and placed his mouth against her, kissing her vulnerable neck below her ear.
Instantly her eyes open wide and she froze as it took her completely.
"Billy!"
She tightened her hold on his hand as she cried out. Billy stopped his experimenting touch as he felt her stop solid in his arms. Mandy remained still as he withdrew his lips from her vein, watching and waiting with wonder.
Everything was right, Mandy realised. Everything was perfect in this moment with him.
"Billy…"
She moved around in his arms, turning to face him with her body pressed against his. Billy looked upon her silently as he placed his hands on the sides of her body and held her, while she placed her hands on his shoulders.
"I should have told you so long ago." Mandy spoke to him, gazing into his eyes. "I love you."
She stayed there in his gentle embrace for another moment just to take in the sense of absolute love in his eyes, and the softness of his hands on her waist. Hearing her finally say it Billy stared at her stunned, before he too let himself go. He reached around to place his hands on her bare back and pull her in deep as Mandy pushed herself up towards his face to where they met at eye level. The two didn't hesitate to move into each other in a soft and deep kiss which they held together for what felt to them like an eternity of complete and perfect bliss. They melted together into each others warmth and closeness as they continued to explore this new and wonderful feeling they had found in each other. It was a feeling of absolute heaven of which the two gave themselves more and more completely to. Billy held onto Mandy more passionately, spreading his hands out across her back, careful that he wouldn't hurt her, Mandy moving her hands up to cradle his neck as they both continued to taste each other. This was something they had both wanted and needed for so long, and now it was theirs, the two finally finding peace in each others mouths. For the first time in their lives they actually felt complete, like what had been missing in each of them for so long was now there.
At last when they separated and their eyes opened, they found their gaze locked on each other, like it was a reflection of their other half, the part neither of them had ever been able to see in the mirror alone. After just a few moments apart they moved in again, kissing each others mouths with steadily greater passion and dedication. Mandy moved her face to the side so she could connect with his lips even more, raising her hand to hold him by the back of his neck as she pressed her body into his. Billy traced his fingers up and down her back, moving across and under her bra strap as he pulled at her likewise, feeling the softness of her breasts pressed up against him, and how warm her elegant body felt in his hands. Mandy wrapped her leg around him as she separated he lips from his.
"I love you too Billy." Mandy spoke with conviction as he kissed her neck, returned her face to bring hers into his again, feeling his hot breath on her lips as they bought their mouths together again. Billy continued to trace his hands across her body before he separated again.
"I love you too Mandy, with all my heart." He spoke softly to her ear, kissing it as she nuzzled his shoulder, returning to face each other again. They looked between each other for a moment, knowing they had truly, finally said and done and expressed everything they had ever wanted to with each other, closed their eyes and came together again in a kiss.
They each revelled in the soft warmth of the others lips, and the taste of their lover's breath, as they continued to hold and kiss each other while they stood wrapped up in each other's arms, alone together in their river.
Half an hour later.
Grimacing severely Harold forcefully swung the old Caprice station wagon into the driveway of the police station, with Gladys almost foaming at the mouth in the passenger seat beside him.
"They arrested my kids?" Her hiss held a piercing, icy edge to it, evidence that she was mere seconds away from another episode of extreme violence and madness. "My son, and my daughter?"
Harold answered with a sense of pity for the poor souls inside the building, vile as they may be. "Yes honey, they did."
"DAMN THEM ALL! DAMN THEM ALL! NO MERCY!"
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. And woman scorned hath no fury like Gladys after her kids had been arrested for a multitude of crimes all related to them having to survive on the run with a killing machine out hunting them. Add to that the fact that the ones who took them were probably no better than street thugs themselves, the prostitutes, the snorting on whatever drugs they wanted, the murders and beatings and intimidation, and you've got one middle aged woman who was now turning red with murderous fury.
Despite how Harold feared her wrath when she was in these states this was one time he agreed with her one hundred percent. He did tend to want to see her open up someone's ribcage over this. The thought of what those depraved lowlifes would be willing to do to the kids given the chance formed a pit in his stomach. What the so-called defenders of justice had done, taking two minors into custody illegally without parental supervision, was enough to wake him want to do the Mabuhai Shuffle on their graves, then promptly drop his pants and defecate.
As he approached the parking lot he set his sights on one parking space directly behind a police cruiser with large shining rims.
"RAM IT! RAM THEIR CAR!"
"Gladys, I can't." He tried to calm the raging woman as she bayed for the blood, or oil, of the white car in front. Harold pulled in slowly behind it, keeping a few feet between the two vehicles. "If we did that we'd be in the cell next to them, and that ain't no fun at all lemme tells ya."
Shutting off the engine they both stepped out of the old car. As Harold made his way up the steps towards the entrance Gladys stopped by the right hand side of the patrol cruiser. Extending her hand towards the front quarter panel she tensed her middle finger against her thumb, releasing it to give the side of the car a sharp flick.
"Tunk!"
"CRACK!"
The vehicle sagged as the front-right wheel broke off, lying limply along with the brake assembly beside the empty wheel arch. Content that she had caused at least a few thousand dollars worth of damage to the city's largest organised crime syndicate she made her way up the stairs, joining her husband as they marched in through the door. Turning to the reception desk they saw an uninterested little man sat reading a smutty magazine on the desk before him. Gladys stormed up towards him while he simply kept his eyes downcast.
"Two kids were bought in here a few hours ago. We're their parents and we're here to collect them. Where are they?" She kept her voice relatively calm, even if the veins in her forehead had swelled. She forced a nice smile to her face in an attempt to converse with the little prick, who did nothing more than ignore her altogether, keeping his eyes on the magazine. It didn't take long for her smile to slip to a scowl of anger.
"Where are they!" She hissed maliciously.
"Fuck off!" The little toady fool spat. "I'm on break."
Gladys' face contorted in rage. The little fool's eyes widened as he felt her hands grasp him by the back of his head, ramming his face down into the magazine. She continued to hammer his upturned nose into the desk, ruining both the magazine and his face, before bringing him up to eye level with her so he could cower at the sight of her furious gaze.
"I WILL BREAK YOU, UNLESS I GET MY KIDS PRONTO YOU LITTLE FUCK!"
She screamed into his battered and bloody face. Cowering in terror he managed a nod before she let him go, and immediately scurried off to inform his superiors of the she-demon.
A few tedious minutes passed of waiting, with Harold nervously keeping a small distance from his explosive wife as she darted her head back and forth impatiently. Eventually the chief made his appearance through the doors to the office. He was as they'd expected, fat, slothenly dressed, with stains of sweat and foot adorning his old uniform. He held a look of utter contempt for the woman and her kids on his plump, oily features, one which persisted even after Gladys turned her rage on him.
"WHERE ARE THEY!" Her rage made the flies that hung around his filthy head disperse. He remained unaffected though, having dealt with plenty of rightfully furious people in his time of bribery and professional incompetence. This murderously angry woman was nothing he hadn't dealt with before, and as such it didn't particularly bother him.
"I'm not at liberty to talk about all that." He gestured the words to come rolling out. "You're going to have to wait until they are put on trial for multiple criminal offences. If they are found indecent, uhhh, inn-oooo-ssent…" He struggled with the word. It wasn't one that was used often in Endsville's conveyor belt legal system. "… If they didn't do it then you will be allowed to see them. If not you can always visit them in juvie." He spoke with a lazy tone.
"Listen here you money grubbing piece of shit, if you don't…" She paused in her threat as Harold moved in. Seeing that this slob was simply too uncaring of anyone else to be influenced by anger, and that his wife's approach might just get them killed, he decided to try a different tact, reaching into his walled.
"I'll give ya fifty bucks if you let em go." He spoke flatly and handed it out to him. He took it instantly.
"This way." Without a moments pause the greasy man who even Harold found revolting led them through the door to the dingy office. Seeing him he wondered for the first time if he should take better care of his body. Inside they were astounded by the level of depravity going on in plain sight, people dealing drugs, prostitutes, and a number of people counting large amounts of cash, and that was only on the ground floor. After a short walk down the stairs, passing more people in the middle of various illegal and suspicious acts, including two officers savagely beating another man with nightsticks, they encountered Grim sitting idly outside the cell block.
"I called as soon as I could get out of de interview. De idiots wouldn't let me call until after dey were done wasting time." Grim groaned and stood to accompany them as they made their way towards one of the cell doors. Reaching for the key the pompous man unlocked the door and opened it outwards for them.
Looking in the three were surprised to see what they both had to admit was the cutest sight they had ever seen in their lives. Billy lay propped up against the far wall with his mouth hanging open asleep, with Mandy held in his arms face down, her cheek nestled into his collar, with her hands placed on his shoulders as her back rose and fell gently with her calm breathing. Both held each other with a delicate care that accentuated the tired, blissful state displayed on their features.
'I knew they'd get together.' Grim thought to himself as he smiled and withdrew a camera from his robe. A brilliant flash later and he had captured a very personal moment between the two for use as blackmail for years to come.
Stirred by the flash which permeated their closed eye lids the two youths winced at the sudden unexpected brightness. Opening their eyes they fought to gain focus as they realised someone was at the door. Upon gaining that focus, finding their parents and Grim there watching them, they each went wide eyed, with a deep scarlet blush spreading across their features. As Mandy pushed herself up slightly in Billy's arms she fought for control once more, turning a menacing stare on each of the group.
"If anyone says 'awww', then that person will have their vocal cords torn out, then given to Billy to blow on, so as to hear you scream." As expected no one made a sound after her chilling little threat. Gladys gave a disapproving glare, but smirked nonetheless. As hard as she tried to be menacing she couldn't pull it off, not while she still had her hands on her son's shoulders, and were both still blushing madly.
"Hey Grim." Billy called out with a sickeningly sweet voice and smile. "If you show that photo to anyone, nothing will ever save you from the horrible things I will put you through." Grim's bones turned a slightly whiter shade as Mandy reached up and patted the grinning psychopath on the head as they sat up and separated.
Rising from their seat they each made their way out of the cell. Mandy took the opportunity to scowl hatefully at the corrupt police officer as she and Billy walked out towards the front of the building again. Billy lingered behind a few steps. He scanned the entire building with his gaze, pouting softly as he silently took everything in, an idea forming in his head as they ascended the stairs. Ahead watching them were the two police who had arrested them as they passed through the office, grimacing angrily as they toyed with their truncheons. Grinning as he passed them both he made sure he stomped on their feet with his heels, pushing a slight bit of his demonic strength into his feet as he did so.
"ARGH!"
"AAAH!""
"Oops, my bad, sorry!" He called back to them as they hobbled away nursing their broken feet. He sneered darkly when they were gone. "Not as sorry as you're all going to be." He said under his breath as he ran to catch up to Mandy as she watched passively at the display.
Gladys glanced back at them as they passed through the foyer, out into the afternoon sun. She noticed them slip their hands into each others grasp as they descended the stairs towards the car. One by one they filed into the car, Billy and Mandy hopping in the back seat together. Seeing them together Grim decided to give the two some space by opening a portal for himself directly back to the house. As Harold started the car and began to pull out, Gladys turned around to see the two of them sitting close along the rear seat, still holding hands. They looked back to her without saying anything as she began to smile again
"Mandy." She asked as the girl looked back silent. "Did you tell him?"
Struggling to hold on to her composure Mandy looked out the window to her right, bitting her lip before a big grin broke out across her features. Lowering her face she reached across and held Billy's arm.
"Yeah I told him." She admitted as her face started to turn warm again. Billy looked across to her as happily she smiled back and pressed herself into his side "While we were there Billy took me back to the river where we used to hang out when we were in hiding, and I told him there. We're a couple now."
Both women smirked as they waited for a gap in the chaotic traffic, Billy surprised that his mother had known beforehand. Mandy looked across to her lover beside her, seeing him equally joyous over their finally getting together. He reached around to put his arm around Mandy as they pulled away from the halls of vice, Mandy all too happy to snuggle into his embrace again.
Harold looked into the rear vision mirror as he drove away from the decaying building through the centre of town and smiled at the sight.
"Awww."
"What did I just say!" She barked aggressively as Billy sniggered.
"Uhhh, I mean… uhhh… I said argh! Like as in frustration, like at those damn corrupt cops! Raaargh!"
Billy's attention perked as that reminded him. In an instant his irises turned green as he let go of Mandy to wind down the window via the button on the door.
"Hey dad, could you slow down a bit?" He asked. Frowning Harold complied, easing back on the accelerator.
Smiling viciously he poked his upper body out the window to look back at the halls of injustice. Mandy, Gladys and Harold watched as he summoned his new weapon into his hands. Lowering the blade at the grey building he forced a wave of electrical energy to blast from the blade towards the police department. Before it impacted it dispersed into a large green wave, which swept through the structure, entering into every level and into every cruiser parked out front. From outside and within no one could tell that anything had happened at all.
"What did you just do?" Mandy asked as Billy sat back down next to her, his features fully human as he wound the window up again.
"Nothing yet. I just made it so that they couldn't get out of the building or contact the outside in any way." He gave a sly, dark smile at what was imminent.
Each of the family eyed him suspiciously, though Harold kept his eyes on the road half the time. Billy shrugged and flashed a smile. "Hey, they had it coming."
"Whatever." Mandy said flatly as Billy sat by her left again.
"Okay." Gladys chirped as she sat back in her seat without any more thought to it.
"Alright! AHHH!"
Harold as he swerved the car violently to avoid a head on collision. Both the kids fell over onto their sides, Mandy now looking up at Billy in surprise as he lay on top of her. With a blush and an awkward smile from Billy he pushed himself upright again, Mandy hoping that neither of her guardians had noticed. They did, Harold and Gladys smiling all the way back to the house.
Evening.
"We spoke with a solicitor today. We're gonna start getting your inheritance." Harold said in between mouthfuls of stake and onions.
"Mmmmm… This is good." Billy called as he shovelled the sweet food into his mouth.
"How much?" Mandy asked as she devoured the meal with slightly more order, customary to her style of perfect control.
"We don't know, we're not at that stage yet." Gladys replied.
"How long do you think it'll take?"
"We don't know that either. The legal structure responsible for those things is in shambles. If we want anything to happen we'll probably have to make all the connections ourselves. So it'll take time."
"Just hope the government doesn't step in and take it before then." Billy added. "They have to cover their asses for all their terrible policies somehow. Cannibalising on people's inheritance would be one way to go."
"They still need people to support their rule. I don't think they'd be stupid enough to go that far until their supporters are drunk on pride and hatred enough for them to get away with it." Mandy answered.
The idea of the influx of funds didn't particularly excite her. She had been in possession of large sums of money before, such as when she melted almost a hundred backyard Schlubs for gold bullion, and when she stole a jewel sneezing fake nose from the Mexicans. Then there was that deal she made with the North Koreans about a year back, which was where she had gotten her emergency funds from. And yet, through all the illegal activities she had engaged in, it was the events of the last two months the police were worried about. There was something slightly moronic about that.
"But I could be mistaken. Bigots were never ones for reason. What about the house?" She asked as she swallowed a mouthful of meat and onion.
"That goes to your name." Gladys answered. "We could sell it and give you the money from it, or we could rent it out. But with the real estate market and the economy the way it is now I don't know what we can do. Either way it's your choice."
Mandy shrugged. "I'll keep it for now. It was mom and dad's house, and I don't want any lowlifes desecrating it. I'll take care of it myself if I have to until we have something better to do with it. " She answered as she and the rest of them finished off their dinner.
Over the next hour they readied themselves for bed. Gladys had insisted that they go to school tomorrow, and Mandy had the idea to agree with her. She wanted to go herself, if only to see what it was like now. If what Junior told her was after only one week of their absence, what about now? She figured Billy and her would at least call through, then continue on elsewhere, donning their regular clothes to start on the business that really needed to be attended to. But right now though that didn't matter, she entered her room, and was soon tucked away beneath the sheets of her bed.
Lying there with her head resting on the soft pillow she recalled what she had experienced today. She had been kissed before, three times in fact, but she had never just given in to the flood of emotions within her. When she met his lips it had felt as though her head was in a concoction of adrenaline and loving bliss, an indescribable high. Even now she silently wanted to feel the warmth of his mouth and his breath on hers.
Now that she thought about it her first kiss, if it could be called that, was also with him, though she had fainted and tried to spit out his saliva in disgust afterwards. The next two of course had to come from Irwin, which profoundly spoiled the whole experience. She gave a soft chuckle to herself as she put the thought out of her head, content to just wait until tomorrow.
Settling herself in she was disturbed by a knock on her door. Rising from her bed in her skimpy tee shirt nightie and shorts she made her way to the door, opening it to reveal Billy standing in his day clothes with a smile on his face, with Berserker lying relaxed in his hand.
"I have something to show you." He said quietly, revealing nothing, though Mandy could quickly make out the gleam in his eyes. Regarding him questioningly she moved from the door and closed it behind her as he gestured for her to follow. She joined him as they made their way down the stairs, out into the cool night air. She found herself shivering slightly as her choice of clothing didn't do much to protect from the cold. Billy couldn't help but glance downwards every so often, if only for a moment, at the expanse of skin the top exposed.
Mandy soon caught on, looking across to him knowingly, wherein he now started to honestly look up and down her alluring figure as he stood side on to her with a slightly awkward smile.
"There's something I've always wondered, don't you ever get cold in that thing?"
Mandy gaped in shock and pouted, crossing her arms over her waist and looking away annoyed.
"Get on with it Billy, and yes, only when I'm outside at night, like now."
Billy sniggered. "Well that's what I'm here for."
Mandy puffed her cheeks, secretly trying to suppress a smile. Billy saw it though.
Pushing such thoughts from his head he lowered the staff to near the ground, low enough for him take a rough seat on it. Mandy followed, sitting down on the staff of the bladed weapon as Billy mentally asked it to rise into the air. It rose steadily, taking the weight of the two youths on its back as it climbed up above the second story of the house, up to the top of the roof looking out towards the centre of town. Steering it over to the peak of the tiled structure he set it down on the end facing the front yard, he and Mandy hopping off to keep a slightly uneven footing on the edge.
"What is it?" Mandy asked as she crossed her legs, wrapping her hands around her elbows to keep out the cold. Billy turned to her, the proverbial gleam of excitement in his eye shining brighter.
"I have a fireworks show prepared for you. I set it up as we were leaving the police station." He replied. Mandy gaped as she remembered the green flash that swept through the corrupt establishment. At the time she had failed to see why he opted to only stop the corrupt scum from getting out. Now though she began to see where he was going, and in a dark way she liked it. "I told you about how the energy seals off the station from the rest of the world. What I didn't tell you is that it also turns the entire building into a giant powder keg just waiting to go off." He raised the scythe. "And I have the detonator."
Billy turned around to face the city in the distance, its lights still aglow in the star studded darkness around it. He smiled as he raised his scythe into the air. "I'd like to dedicate this act of revenge to the love of my life Mandy," Said girl smiled at his choice of words, "and also to the Endsville Police Department. I just wanted to honour the contribution made by the vile, corrupt officers trapped inside that building, who work hard every day to uphold their extortion racket, and who risk other people's lives to beat, rape and murder the few innocent people left in this vermin infested shithole, all so they can feel good about themselves." His features curved into an evil sneer, and the girl beside him knew anarchy was imminent.
"Hey Mandy, did you know that for a long time I wanted to be the Joker? I mean I know I could never be better than Heath Ledger, guy's acting so good it killed him, but I always thought I could be more realistic and genuine about it all. What do you think?" He looked back to her with slightly demonic features, seeing her scowl back.
"I think… that talk is cheap. Prove it." She spoke sternly, challenging him. Grinning manically he snarled.
"I was hoping you'd say something like that. Let's gives it a go shall we?" Looking out to the city he raised his scythe at his side, with its base a few inches above the roof top. Mandy took a step forward as she tensely awaited something she knew was going to be good, waiting for the snap of the staff striking the tiles.
"And here we… go."
"Tok!"
Immediately much of the skyscrapers became black shadows against a brilliant white glow that made Mandy shield her eyes. Immediately the earth began to emit a low rumble like that of thunder, only smoother. Within seconds the piercing white light subsided, leaving a brilliant green glow rising from the city centre, and a hail of bright green starbursts soared upwards. Within another few moments a ball of green flame became visible through the skyscrapers billowing up from where the halls of corruption had once stood, with more flashes of green emanating from below sending more burning stars out into the air like fireworks. As it grew an enormous white cloud cap formed over the city centre. The light reflected off it, casting the dome of vapour and the surrounding clouds in a neon green glow.
Mandy stared agape at the mushroom cloud of supernatural flame as it towered over the city, numerous smaller explosions of orange and green taking hold throughout the city as many patrol cars erupted in flame, the uniform wearing criminals driving them incinerated and sent to a place they belonged. The headquarters continued to burn and billow bright green smoke up into the night sky, each bursts sending out a hail of burning debris. Billy gave a darkly satisfied smile at the display of anarchy and retribution, his red hair buffeting in the blast wave that washed over them. As she moved up next to her partner Mandy watched the light reflecting off his green eyes as he gazed out at the scene of death and destruction. This was an act of terrorism against those who were arrogant and corrupt, the emerald flames still glistening in his blue eyes as he returned himself to human to look across to where Mandy stood at his side. He embraced her, his arms linking around her soft bare waist as she stared at the sight that had so captivated her mind.
"Billy… It's so… beautiful." She could barely make out the words as she looked into the flames not overhead but reflected off her lover's eyes.
"Mandy, you're looking at me." He added with a smile.
"I know."
The two bought themselves together in a warm and loving kiss under the glow of the emerald fireball as it darkened and billowed up into the night sky. It was a perfect metaphor for the love shared between the two living bastions of darkness and power.
Wasn't that just magic? The original idea was for them to just hook up in their cell, but that wouldn't do. After I did the chapter when Mandy strips in front of Billy the idea of them getting together at the river sounded much better. I kind of wish I didn't make it quite so squishy in the language I used to describe what they were feeling, it kind of made it cliche. Not that it ever stopped me before. I hope you liked it.
Oh, and please, please, pleeeze review this one, even if you're reading this long after it was put up. I really appreciate it, thanks.